I'm really suprised that we don't seem to have a knowlege of any brits travelling out to the final main tour grass grass court tournament of the season. Last year, there were space in the qualifying draw, there probably will be again this year. I certainly think Chris Eaton should - he'll be able to afford the air fare now. The courts there are real grass courts, ie fast and low, should suit Chris even better than Wimbledon. Perhaps our guys feel it is too far to travel for just one tournament, which I kind of of understand but it is relatively easy points if you win the qualifying matches. Most players are either resting or preparing for the hard court season or going back to clay. Chris will certainly want to come straight back to play the challenger at Manchester.
I remember Martin Lee making it to the final in Rhode Island several years ago, it did his ranking a power of good, it got him onto the top 100! And the following week he travelled back to play a tour event on clay in Holland, where he won his first rounf match....
By the way, what happenend to the Bristol challenger?
Two players who were sort of certs for qualies won't be there. Kash Amritraj has a main draw WC and Udomchoke has withdrawn. That improves the chances of our players who may want to go there.
The alts list after Nishikori's withdrawal (and a few alts withdrawals) looks like this -
1. Ledovskikh, Mikhail RUS 160 2. Kim, Kevin USA 161 3. Sirianni, Joseph AUS 165 4. Stadler, Simon GER 168 5. Miranda, Ivan PER 170 6. Hippensteel, KJ USA @171 7. Lopez, Marc ESP 177 8. Evans, Brendan USA 179 9. Menendez, Adrian ESP 180 10. Bachinger, Matthias GER 188 11. Russell, Michael USA 189
It'll be the shock tennis news of the year so far if one of the two SEs are used, so two more players are as good as in.
Which of our players could be there, though? I suppose Eaton, Rich, Skupski and Ward are the only ones eligible and with a decent chance of getting in?
